Operating Schedule
See which of the mansions are open and when. Search by date or month, or view the full year’s schedule.
Visitor Info
View our FAQs, map & parking, guidelines and more.
Tours, Groups, Exclusive Experiences
Explore our various tour types to find what’s best for you and your group.
History of Newport and the Mansions
Founded in 1639, Newport was an important port city, a center of the slave trade, a fashionable resort and the summer home of the Gilded Age rich.
What was the Gilded Age?
The Gilded Age was a period of unprecedented change in America. Fortunes were spent on luxuries such as the lavish "summer cottages" of Newport.
Deep Dive into the Show
Learn about the people, places and events depicted in Julian Fellowes' popular historical drama series.
Current Members
Current members can see a full list of benefits and any information regarding Members Events.
Become a Member
We invite you to become a member of the Preservation Society today. In addition to joining an active community of preservation supporters and advocates, members are offered unlimited access to all open houses.
About Us
Our mission is to protect, preserve, and present the best of Newport County's architectural heritage. Learn more about us and our work.
Wind Farm Federal Appeal: FAQs
The Preservation Society of Newport County is appealing federal agency approval of two massive wind farms off the Rhode Island coast.
Personal Photography on the Grounds
Rent our museums for commercial photography & videography, TV production, and wedding photography.
Commercial Filming or Photography
Museum Rentals & Weddings
Host your wedding, rehearsal dinner, corporate event, or other celebration at our historic museums.
With Philip Rylands, President and CEO of The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida, and former Director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice
This lecture tells the story of Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979), one of the most fascinating and influential figures of the 20th-century avant-garde, remarkable for her collection of Cubist, Surrealist and Abstract art and for her patronage of Jackson Pollock.
Guggenheim belonged to the celebrated New York family of copper magnates. In 1921 she traveled to Europe where, thanks to her first husband Laurence Vail, she joined avant-garde literary and art circles in Paris. She opened a contemporary art gallery in London in 1938 and a year later began planning her own museum of modern art. The outbreak of World War II constrained her to return to the United Sates. She married her second husband, Max Ernst, and opened a now-legendary museum/gallery in New York called Art of This Century. When the war was over, she returned to Europe, and in 1951 fulfilled her ambition to open a museum, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, on the Grand Canal in Venice.
Philip Rylands
Philip Rylands earned an art history Ph.D. from Cambridge University and has published books about the church of the Madonna dell’Orto in Venice (1976), Palma Vecchio (1988 and 1992), the history of the US Pavilion of the Venice Biennale (1993) and Peggy Guggenheim (2004). He has curated exhibitions, written exhibition and book reviews on art, and taught for several U.S. universities. From 1979 to 2017 he was Administrator, Deputy Director and Director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (a branch of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation) in Venice. Since 2019 he has been President and CEO of The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida.
Explore the underground systems that made this great house a marvel of technology for its time.
For the first time in the 129-year history of The Breakers, the private third-floor family space occupied by generations of Vanderbilts is open for public tours. *Sept. 3-Oct. 14, offered twice daily at 1:30 and 3:30 pm. Starting Oct. 15, offered once daily at 1:30 pm.
Wild Imagination will explore the changing place of animals in the Gilded Age, a period that transformed how we view and treat the animal world, through more than 100 animal-themed artworks across a range of media.
What is spiritualism and how did it become popular in the Gilded Age? Learn more about the spiritualist movement and the beliefs it fostered about the spirits of the dead.
Join Curator of Collections Dr. Nicole Williams on a tour of our latest exhibition, "Wild Imagination: Art and Animals in the Gilded Age."
Witches and vampires, angels and princesses, skeletons and superheroes, get ready! There’s big Halloween fun for the family at Newport’s biggest mansion.
Newport County residents, be our guests! The Preservation Society invites you to visit our houses and properties for free on these dates.
Jeff Curtis, Director of Gardens & Landscapes, will provide a tour of the Greenhouse and discuss how the work done there provides thousands of bedding plants and cut flowers for our historic properties.
Celebrate with us the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue" with this live performance. Gershwin's work is an important part of Newport’s musical history.
A great Newport tradition! See the great mansions of the Gilded Age dressed in their festive holiday finery. It’s the most spectacular time of the year at these awe-inspiring historic houses.
This outdoor spectacle of holiday lights will dazzle and delight you! The 13-acre landscape of The Breakers turns into a wonderland of color and light. Includes tour of the lavishly decorated rooms inside the house. Open on select evenings through the season. Includes The Breakers interior tour during the same visit.
See and hear how the other half lived. This tour will highlight the stories of some of the men and women who worked to service the social whirl of Newport during the Gilded Age. The Elms is closed Oct. 1-Dec. 6.
This elegant gala is set in Newport's grandest mansion dressed in its holiday finest.
Thank you to all of our sponsors, guests and volunteers for another successful Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival. See you next year for the 20th annual festival, September 19-21, 2025, at Rosecliff. Become a Preservation Society member and receive early access to purchase 2025 tickets before they become available to the general public.
Download our tour app before your visit and bring your earbuds.
Parking is free onsite at all properties except for Hunter House and The Breakers Stable & Carriage House, where street parking is available.
Answers to some of our most frequently asked questions.
Explore the 11 properties under the stewardship of the Preservation Society and open as historic house museums.
Partners in Preservation